California Biographies, Kern County
History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches
of the leading men and women of the county who have been
identified with its growth and development from the early days
to the present.
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company, 1914
History by Morgan, Wallace Melvin
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
HENRY A. JASTRO.— A record of the life of Henry A. Jastro is in
many respects an epitome of the progress of Kern county. So long has been
his identification with this great region and so intimate his association with
local development that, viewing the remarkable transformation wrought
within his memory, he may well exclaim, "All of which I saw and part of
which I was." Great as has been his business activity, bringing to him
prominence and prestige throughout the entire United States, it is as super-
visor that the people of his home county know him best and regard him
with the deepest affection. Through the period of more than twenty years
measuring his service as a member of the board of supervisors, to which he
was chosen by a large majority at each election and as invariably made chair-
man of the board, mind and heart have been engrossed in the well-being of
the county. Evidence of his unusual ability as a financier appears in the fact
that Kern county is operated on a cash basis with the lowest tax rate in the
state, yet there have been erected quite recently a county high school and hall
of records, an addition to the county hospital doubling its capacity, and a
courthouse that ranks among the finest in the state; also, the Kern River
bridge, one of the longest bridges in the state, built of reinforced concrete.
Each of these buildings and structures is attractive in architecture, substan-
tial in construction, modern in equipment and convenient in interior arrange-
ment, each in a word a model of its kind, yet such was the skill of the super-
visors as financiers, under the leadership of their chairman, that the enor-
mous tasks were completed amicably and economically without taint of graft
or criticism of extravagance. The courthouse in particular has attracted
architects from distant points, for its pronounced excellence invites a close
inspection on the part of all associated with the architecture of public build-
ings. The plans of the supervisors did not end with construction work, but
include the ultimate transformation of the courthouse grounds into a bower
of horticultural beauty unsurpassed in the valley of the San Joaquin.
Born in Germany in 1850, Henry A. Jastro was thirteen years of age
when he accompanied his family from Germany to America. Later he came
alone to California by way of Panama and after landing in San Francisco
traveled from there by stage to Los Angeles. With youthful enthusiasm he
threw himself into the task of earning a livelihood in a strange country, far
from the friends of earlier days. For a time he engaged in freighting to
Arizona. .Another task was that of working with cattle and sheep between
Wilmington and Catalina Islands. In the meantime he was learning much
conceining the great undeveloped resources of the state. During 1870 he
saw Bakersfield for the first time. The now flourishing city was a small ham-
let, comprising a primitive collection of cabins and offering little inducement
to the ordinary settler. But Mr. Jastro was then as he is now an optimist con-
cerning the country. From the first he realized its possibilities and foresaw its
future growth, although not realizing at the time that oil and natural gas
would form the secret of such development. Subsequent events have deepened
his faith in Kern county and he is now a "veritable encyclopedia" concerning
its resources. In his opinion the discoveries of oil and natural gas are the
greatest benefits California has ever received, not excepting gold. With the
advent of natural gas in Bakersfield, pipes were laid to convey it to San
Francisco and Los Angeles; while it is not inferior to manufactured gas for
illuminating purposes. it has the advantage of a greater heat unit. After oil
had given the state cheap fuel, California jumped from the twenty-fifth place
in manufacturing to the eleventh, and Mr. Jastro believes that within a few
years it will rank fourth or fifth among the manufacturing states. In his
estimation this will come through the establishment of cotton and woolen fac-
tories. Already cotton is being produced in large quantities in the state, while
sheep always will be raised on lands adapted for no other purpose than graz-
ing.
Through his marriage to Miss May E. Baker, who died in 1894, Mr. Jastro
became allied with a notable family of Kern county, for his father-in-law, Col.
Thomas Baker, is remembered in the annals of local history as the founder
of Bakersfield. A son, Harry A., and two daughters were born of the union.
One of the daughters, now residing at Albuquerque, N. M., is the wife of M.
O. Chadbourne, son of Colonel Chadbourne, of San Francisco. Since the death
of his wife Mr. Jastro has made his home with his widowed daughter, Mrs.
May Greer, in a comfortable home in Bakersfield, and he is seldom away
from the city except at such times as the demands of his large business inter-
ests necessitate his presence elsewhere. His identification with Messrs. Carr
and Haggin, the predecessors of the Kern County Land Company, began in
1874, four years after his location in Bakersfield. From that time to the pres-
ent, excepting a period of about four years from 1886 to 1890, he has become
more and more a power in the profitable development of this close corporation,
comprising the estate of Lloyd Tevis (represented by William S. Tevis) and
the holdings of J. B. Haggin, now of New York. Stockdale, one of the com-
pany's great ranches, is the seat of the Tevis home. The tropical splendors of
this ranch defy any description. One of the most unusual attractions is a
bamboo forest, where the bamboo by actual measurement has grown twenty-
five inches in twenty-four hours. The hothouse contains rare plants and
the artificial lake is stocked with rare water fowl, while grottoes and foun-
tains add to the charm of the ranch.
A colonization scheme by the manager of the company failed signally in
1903. Mr. Jastro, who had been with the company for nineteen years in differ-
ent capacities, was chosen manager. The properties over which he has absolute
control include four hundred and sixty thousand acres in California, six hun-
dred and ten thousand acres in New Mexico, one hundred thousand acres in
Arizona, and two hundred and twenty-five thousand acres in Mexico. An ex-
tensive irrigation scheme has been installed by the general manager on the
San Pedro river in Arizona and this will irrigate ten thousand acres. The site
of the government Elephant Butte dam in New Mexico is on forty thousand
acres formerly held by the company, but taken over by the government on an
equitable basis, water from the reclamation project will be used on the com-
pany land.
As early as 1885 this company attempted to raise cotton and in that year
they raised the first big crop of cotton ever grown in California. The product
was of very fine quality, but labor conditions made the venture a failure. In
order to secure the required number of cotton pickers they imported negroes,
but they did not remain. Next they tried Chinamen, but cotton picking re-
quires long fingers and the short Chinese fingers tore the staple. The industry
was then abandoned. At the present time alfalfa and grain are the principal
crops, but citrus and deciduous fruits and vines are raised, while in stock
they have good success with every department, cattle, horses, mules, sheep
and hogs. In Bakersfield and on the ranches the manager has established
machine and wagon shops, warehouses, supply departments and tinshops,
besides which he has built canals and waterworks. The cattle are raised in
Arizona and New Mexico, then brought to Kern county for fattening on
alfalfa or corn and chopped hay. Enough beef is produced to supply regularly
eighty thousand people. The stock business conducted upon such an enormous
scale calls for rare abilities, but the general manager has proved equal to every
emergency and has displayed a sagacity, keen discrimination and wise foresight
seldom equalled.
The fact that Mr. Jastro is a stanch Democrat has made no difference to
the people in their solicitude to secure his public services. Republicans have
displayed as much enthusiasm for him as supervisor as have the Democrats
and during the great Roosevelt landslide in 1904, when the county gave a
great Republican majority, he received a flattering majority for supervisor on
the Democratic ticket. In fact, the people have divorced politics from public
service in their desire for his able assistance in public affairs and in this
respect they resemble Mr. Jastro himself, for one of his hobbies is the divorc-
ing of trade relations and civic progress from politics. Five times elected
president of the National Live Stock Association (the last time at Phoenix,
Ariz., in January of 1913), in that office he has made a study of the tariff
question in connection with the hides and wool schedule. It is his belief that
the commerce of our country will not much longer permit itself to be a
prey to political vicissitudes. As a remedial agency he favors the appointment
of a board of tariff commissioners on a non-partisan basis, such board to be
continuously in session and have the power to adjust the tariff duties as occa-
sion may demand. The action of President Taft in appointing tariff commis-
sioners he regards as a step in the right direction. As a member of the state
board of agriculture of which he was president for three terms his able
services have been given to the uplifting of the farmer, whose interests he
believes to be second to none in importance if the permanent prosperity of
our commonwealth is to be conserved. In every post of honor accepted by
him he has given dignified and noteworthy service. With his commanding
presence and magnetic personality, he is equally a power among the great-
est captains of industry in the country and among the humbler workers
of life's great field. His name ever will stand at the very forefront in the
annals of Kern county and in the history of the stock industry throughout
the west.